What's up with those podcast microphones?

Question

On podcasts and video courses it is common to see the host with a giant microphone in front of their face. What is the point with that? Is it the coolness factor or do they really provide better sound quality? And why do they have the microphone so close to the mouth? They are not outside in a tornado after all. I thought the microphones were good, but it seems they suck judging from how close to the mouth they have to be.I doubt the audio quality is better due to the following findings. Firstly, often the host is interviewing someone and that other person often has no visible microphone (maybe a built in laptop microphone, an "airplane headset" or they use some cheap cabled microphone/earpiece), but their audio is most of the time as good as the host's. Secondly, if you look at for example news shows on TV, they often have much smaller microphones and they certainly are not straight up in the face, they are about 1 meter away on the desk or above and off-screen or this little shirt clip microphone. Thirdly, the giant boom which carries the giant microphone can make noises when they manipulate it. Fourthly, not audio related, but it distracts from the topic.It would be nice to hear your inputs on if this is just some somewhat childish "me too" show off thing or if there is some justified technical reason for it.

h2odragon · Accepted Answer

Like "tacticool" hunting gear: flash over function.
Of course, if you're watching this, ("see the host"), the part of the function of the microphone is to look good. Add to the scene instead of detract. You may feel the big fancy showy things do not add value, but that's getting into questions of taste that are subjective, innit.
There was a fashion for some particular old microphones, a while back; where they'd been produced but found little success but were valued years after for the particular properties they might've had. Often these were from the early days and were big chonky things and used designs that were impractical.
The visual impression of that gear hit us in our childhoods and gave us the image of the fancy suspension rig and technical looking complexity.
With modern processing, it should be able to match the performance (good or bad) of any microphone with quite cheap sensors plus some software. The Shure SM58 shall finally inherit the whole of the Earth.

k310 · Answer

I have a physical (non-work) meeting coming up that we want to share via zoom. As a zoom participant, the iPad's built-in mike is fine, but with not enough time to get a speakerphone shipped, and no suitable one available nearby, I picked up a cheap usb-c mike that hopefully will share the room conversation rather then the portable mike that has been used in the past. Too much was lost.
A purely functional concern. Results TBD.
It's the opposite of close-miking to diminish room noise. And in an audio sense, who can't tell when a musical recording is close-miked? A lot of work went into concert halls for a reason.
I'm not so much "for show". I recall in the distant past, people who couldn't afford large book or record collections substituted photos of same.